Anatomy of an inside-the-park grand slam!
On an absolutely remarkable night for the Blue Jays there was one play that somehow stood out
There are laughers, there are laughers, and there’s what the Blue Jays did to the Boston Red Sox on Friday night at Fenway Park.
It’s not often that you hear the phrase “that dropped pop-up cost them 10 runs” during a major league broadcast, but it was exactly, deliciously, hilariously that kind of embarrassing affair for the Red Sox. And that kind of incredible, record-breaking, everything-possible-going-right one for the Blue Jays.
No event in the game embodied what kind of a ridiculous night it was — in completely divergent ways — for either team more than Raimel Tapia’s third-inning inside-the-park grand slam. As inside-the-park grand slams tend to do. I assume! I may be old enough to know that Junior Felix once hit one for the Jays — the only other one in club history, also hit at Fenway Park — but I certainly don’t remember if it typified the game like this one did, or it’s effect on the rest of the night. Hell, I don’t even remember if the game was televised!
And so, while we could spend time going over the many, many crooked numbers and fun facts to produced by this one, I think the best way to celebrate this unbelievable blowout is through a close-up look at its defining moment — something few games even have, let alone ones where a team scores 28!
Here’s anatomy of an inside-the-park grand slam…
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The Jays were already up 6-0 when Raimel Tapia came to the plate in the top of the third inning — a healthy lead in most ballparks, but one that can be erased rather quickly at Fenway. Three of those runs had already come in the third. A leadoff groundout from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was followed by a single (Alejandro Kirk), double (Bo Bichette), walk (Teoscar Hernández), and a two-run single from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. — his second hit on what would become a six-hit night.
Matt Chapman then went down on strikes for the second out of the inning. Santiago Espinal singled home another run, and then Danny Jansen walked to load the bases.
Up came Tapia, but he had to wait for his chance to hit, as the Red Sox made a pitching change. Austin Davis entered the game, replacing starter Nathan Eovaldi.
As you can see, Davis doesn’t have terrible numbers. More than a strikeout per inning. Walks are a little high, but overall his WHIP isn’t terrible.
A lefty with a fastball that sits at 94, Davis also throws a slider, with a changeup mixed in against right handers. Tapia not being a right-hander meant that he'd be seeing one of two pitches.
Like a lot of Jays hitters on Friday night, he was ready to swing early — an approach that the team had gone away from during their struggles early on in season, but that worked exceptionally well for them in 2021.
Davis’s first pitch started out coming towards Tapa, but as it travelled began to bend in over the plate. A slider — and a slower one than usual at that. This one came in at 77 mph. Tapia stayed back on it, but as it ran back out over the plate decided it was going to be juicy enough to give it a hack.
He wasn’t wrong, as the pitch came in about belt high on the inner third of the plate.
Unfortunately, or so he thought, he gave it a bit too much of an uppercut. Didn’t quite get enough of it. Whichever way you’d like to put it.
The 97 mph exit velocity Tapia produced was actually pretty good, as this year only 25% of balls in play on Davis’s slider have ended up qualifying as hard hit (i.e. above 95 mph off the bat). However, thanks to its launch angle of 35°, the ball had an expected batting average of just .180.
With it heading into deep straightaway centre field, this one wasn’t going to amount to much, and Tapia knew it.
Tapia, head down, began trotting to first base. Because there were two outs, the Blue Jays’ runners started circling the bases on contact. It all seemed routine.
Ahh, but enter Red Sox centre fielder Jarren Duran.
A real “team player,” Durran was unable able to enter Canada for a late June series against the Jays — though, to his credit, he has since said that he will get vaccinated in time to cross the border the next time the teams meet at Rogers Centre. Mandates work!
On this play he casually strode in to make an easy catch…
…but almost immediately exhibited signs that he was in trouble.
He didn’t know where the ball was. Turns out, the damn thing was actually carrying pretty good.
Making matters even more comical, for some reason his instinct at this point was to run in a little bit…
…before pulling up and lifting his palms to the heavens as the ball absolutely perfectly dropped in behind him, bouncing off the warning track and up against the wall.
Blame the “high sky.” Blame the atypical weather — at game time it was reportedly 35° in Boston. Chalk it up to chance. These plays happen and Duran was simply on the wrong end of this one.
His effort after he recognized what had happened, however, was… uh… subpar.
This was in stark contrast to Tapia, who had clocked what was happening as he jogged up the first base line and began furiously sprinting around the bases.
A classic helmet-falling-off moment came as he headed toward second and found his second gear…
Meanwhile, Duran simply walked dejectedly in the vague direction of the baseball, not even looking up as his teammate, Alex Verdugo, full-on sprinted to dead centre and launched himself toward it. (To again be fair to Duran, he might be farther from the play than this angle makes it look. But still! Lmao!!!)
Tapia knew by this point that the impossible was not only possible, but actually happening in front of him. So, too, did third base coach Luis Rivera, who was windmilling so hard he’s lucky his arm didn’t break free from its socket and fly off into the crowd.
The Red Sox setup the had all hands on deck for the relay to the plate — their only chance to get out of the inning with some measure of dignity…
but, of course, it was far too late.
Incredible. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! LMAOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
To get a sense of just how quickly all of unfolded, here’s how Dan Shulman called it from the Sportsnet booth:
DAN: Sends a drive to deep centre, but... where is it? And it's WAY over the head of Duran, who NEVER SAW IT!!
HE NEVER SAW IT!
Tapia rounds third!! Heading home!!! An inside-the-park grand slam!!!!
You can, of course, also watch the whole thing in real time for yourself. The whole thing took about 16 seconds.
And with that, the Boston Red Sox were dispatched.
The Jays would score 18 more times before the night was through. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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The Boston sky is credited with 5 rbi
https://www.mlb.com/video/felix-s-inside-the-park-slam
Enjoy!
p.s. I think we are getting our money's worth of entertainment out of Raimel Tapia this year.